In the past decade, high-throughput assay technologies have gained attention in the genomic and proteomic research community. DNA microarrays, which in principle is a widely used affinity-based biosensor system, have attracted much interest due to the large scale, parallel nature of the experiments and the richness of the information obtained. This stands in contrast to traditional biosensing techniques capable of analyzing only a small number of analytes at any particular time.
DNA microarrays are primarily used to measure gene expression levels by affinity-based principle. Changes in DNA expression levels are often an indication of diseases; thus, DNA microarray experiments provide valuable insight into genetic changes in cells. Such insight is useful in detecting and treating disease and disorders as well as optimizing cellular differentiation, culture conditions and protein production. The generation of such valuable information is useful in the development of molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine.
Accordingly, optimal estimations of analytes, such as gene expression profiling, is important for proper diagnosis and research.